Mostly music mixed with some rather audacious randomness.

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I’d like to start this post by stating that I know the Chicago Cubs haven’t won a World Series title since 1908. I’m fully aware that they haven’t even appeared in a World Series since 1945. Yes, I was a witness to the craptastic 2011 season and I will sit through what I assume will be an equally craptastic 2012 season. No, I don’t think that Theo and Co. means the Cubs will win the next 78 World Series titles, nor do I believe that the Cubs are the center of the universe. I just wanted to clear that up for those of you who assume that there’s no such thing as a Cubs fan who isn’t the epitome of gullible.

The original tweet above was posted by me after an alleged Pale Hose fan tweeted an admission that the upcoming 2012 Major League Baseball season will be a…

Pavy, short for Progressive Ambitious Vigorous Youngin’, gives us Middle Class Ignorance, a mixtape that I have been waiting to hear since one of the tape’s singles, “Triumphant”, made love to my eardrums about a month and change ago. Pavy is a young go-getting lyricist from the City of Wind with a relatively old flow that is well-masked by his boyish voice. Middle Class Ignorance was mostly produced by Dutch Cannon, with a few “guest beats” by producers such as Coop, Matic Beats, Capital K and others. Some artists featured on this tape are Vic Spencer, D2G, Cashflow Ellis and Ashley Laschelle. Even fresher than the beats and lyrics are the cover art; a black-and-white picture showing Pavy with who I assume are his parents, or at least two well-dressed older people. The review will be up by the end of the week.

Found this goodie in my inbox a few days ago. ElSii is a 19 year-old artist from Chicago. She’s currently a college student (Loyola, perhaps?), and from what I’ve heard on “Running Out”, her flow is pretty dope. Not too sure about the Phoenix Suns cap she’s rocking, but the video was fairly well-done, overshadowing that slight faux pas.

It’s been just over two years since a massive, 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti at a depth of 8.1 miles. The USGS reports that it was the strongest earthquake since 1770 to affect the area that is now known as Haiti. Nicholaus Kane gives us a bit of a history lesson about the suffering nation and the haunting images serve as a reminder that for many, life is short and extremely unfair.

While I promised to have this review up a few days ago, I got a bit sidetracked by Chocolate Thai, vodka and Ali. However, I’m no longer distracted…for now.

About a week ago, during a conversation with Oscar and Martina, the latter of whom is originally from Houston but now lives in Chicago, the topic of Southern rappers came up. Scarface and the Geto Boys, OutKast, T.I., Ludacris, Big KRIT, et cetera. Martina mentioned that her younger sister had been hearing of someone relatively new to the scene. Milli Mars, a rapper from San Antonio, was the aforementioned newbie. YMID is his debut release. Read on…

The album starts with “One Day”, featuring Emma Diaz. She slowly sings over a rather serene-sounding beat, and upon first hearing it, you’d think it was an introduction to an uptempo R&B album. Milli Mars does not appear on this track and I actually think that it was a wise choice; Diaz’s smooth voice was more than enough to hold it down. “YMID” follows the opener and Mars begins the song, spitting, “My mind’s fucked/I need some sanctuary…”. As someone who is admittedly a little crazy herself, I loved this. Little did I know that those seven words would essentially set the tone for the rest of the album. The production on this one is nuts, which complements Mars’ flow. The same can be said about the production on “God’s Hand”, featuring Chris Conde. The sound is a little eerie, and Conde’s vocals at the end make the track even eerier.

While the first three tracks were collectively okay, “FDR” grabbed ahold of my ears and wouldn’t let go. The beat took me back to my raving, E-popping high school days and Mars seemed to assert himself a bit more, lyrically. “Now peep, see how they livin’/And I ain’t fightin’ over no pussy like Scott Pilgrim”, Mars spit. Referencing Scott Pilgrim, my favorite movie and comic book character of all-time, will always get love from me. “U Ain’t Sayin’ Nuthin'” follows this, and the lyrics tell any half-hearted listener exactly that. It took a few listens, but I now like “WHATTHEFUC”, featuring See-Saw and “Mafia In Dubai”. The former is, well, loud with rather subdued lyrics by Mars. It sounds a bit more like a party record than most of the other tracks, and that is mainly because of See-Saw on the hook and “final words”. See-Saw kind of sounds like a rattier, more Westernized version of M.I.A. Nothing about the lyrics on the latter track stood out to me, but the beat and chick intermittently halfway moaning got my ears’ attention.

“Some Of These Girls” is easily the sexiest sounding track on YMID. Mars goes into detail about some of the women in his life, painting a vivid picture of one particular dame and what she looks like up against the wall while…you know. His friend even calls to warn that one of his bed mates knows that they “roll cream” and Mars responds by rapping that he’ll have to defuse the situation by grabbing the “4-4″.

After the completely unnecessary “Pussy Interlude” comes the equally unnecessary “Pussy”. Don’t get me wrong. I love pussy so very, very much. I even love the word, but when it’s repeated about 1283982793 times, it loses its sexiness. What makes “Pussy” even worse is the wack ass meowing in the background. If you download this album, skip both of these tracks. Better yet, delete them.

Luckily, Mars recovers with “The Alarm”. I posted its video on this page after watching it 22 times straight on YouTube. Once again, maniacal production accompanies Mars equally maniacal flow. The video is strange and the song does it injustice, in fact. I suggest you watch the video to get the full effect of the song. “Wasted all day/Killing all the Capulets” is how “Holly” starts. “Holly” appears to be a woman Mars has lost, but everything is so loud, I can barely understand what Mars is saying. That’s all I can remember, besides the rock-themed beat and perfect hook, screamed by a female while the production is almost absent. It is beautifully grungy, though. I could listen to this song forever and a day simply because of the hard ass sound.

“Control” tackles political issues, and begins with clips of people opining on the shitty ways of politicians on both sides. You can even hear Bill O’Reilly’s bitch ass whining about the “smear tactics” of the left. While Mars is no Talib or Mos Def in terms of political consciousness, the listener can’t help but think that if we were to band together, there’s no way the government could “control” us. “Democracy” is a technical term, according to Mars. After going in a completely different direction from the rest of the album on “Control”, Mars jumps back into the fray with “Nov. 2nd”. This beat is my favorite on YMID and I’d go as far as saying the track is my favorite as well. The 5-star rating came out quickly for this one, and this track alone makes the entire album halfway decent.

YMID comes to an end with “NIOSA”. Besides what I’m sure is something in Spanish being repeated in the background at a high pitch, this is the most normal-sounding track on the album. While I wish he would’ve ended the album the way he started it; with Diaz doing her version of crooning over a calming beat, I actually liked “NIOSA”. He pays homage to his hometown and admonishes “watered down music”, the latter of which I absolutely loathe.

Lyrically, Milli Mars certainly isn’t the greatest. I don’t think that’s his objective, though. For some reason, I find Southern rappers to be a bit more unique than the rest of their counterparts. They seem to be a bit more willing to reach outside of the box to express themselves artistically, and by YMID‘s production alone (Whiz Kidda of The Whiz Kids), this is the case with Mars. For a debut release, Mars and his listeners should be pleased. He’s got some refining to do, but YMID will definitely stay in rotation on my iTunes.

MORE VIC SPENCER, BITCHES! As someone who is currently residing in Spain, I’m glad to see Mr. Spencer reached out to the “great” continent of Europe for production. “Kiss My Ass From Spain” is from Spencer’s upcoming National Geographical project, and was produced by France’s IKAZ. This track epitomizes what Spencer is all about: Being loud, boastful, condescending and grungy as all fuck.

Vic Spencer is back on LBDS, bitches! And this time, he appears on our page with partner-in-rhyme Sulaiman, and fellow artist Yung Word Mann, who I am admittedly not familiar with. Mann starts the festivities off with his (surprisingly) ill verse, and Sulaiman and Mr. Spencer finish the beat off with their bars. I’m a huge fan of We’re Just Disappointed, Spencer and Sulaiman’s dual effort, and it was great to hear them on this track together. I’ve read that listeners should expect more from these artists in the future, and I can’t wait to give it a listen.

HOLY FUCK ME GOOD. A friend who’s originally from Houston and Mr. Crassidy hipped me to Milli Mars, a rap artist from San Antonio. “The Alarm” is a single from his debut album, YMID, and while I’ve only heard 5 tracks to this point, I can tell by the sound of them that I’ll love the rest of his rookie release. This video is beyond sick and resembles a scary movie, all the way until the 3:40 mark, which is the end of the video. I can’t wait to listen to the rest of YMID, and will definitely have a review up once I awaken from my deep, reefer-induced sleep.

My favorite rapper of 2011, Chicago’s very own Vic Spencer, sent me this tasty treat today. “Out The Water” features fellow Chicago rapper, Chance The Rapper, and was produced by ‘Goans Nez and Rio. While I’m very familiar with both Spencer and the always-dope production duo, I’ll admit it’s Chance The Rapper whose flow catches my attention on this track. He just sounds so…smooth, which is perfectly complementary to Spencer’s grungy flow. Even when he changes the tempo of his verse, my dreads continue to shake. I last posted the video for Chance’s “Fuck You Tahm Bout” and I’ll continue to fuck with this kid in the future. I’m not sure what project this joint is for, but when it drops, I’ll be on it like Kim Kardashian on any pro athlete with a bit of money and time.